Growing Up

Here I sit, all alone in a hotel in Tinley Park, Illinois, faced with the reality that my little red-haired girl is growing up. It's spring break, and we decided that it was probably a good time to jump into college-visit mode, since we have only a little more than a year to go till my Katie ventures out on her own. Her first visit: Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois, just southwest of Chicago.

While this is what I've been training Katie up for all these years, it's a little scary thinking that there will come a time--not too far in the distant future--when I won't hear her singing, giggling, walking through the house with her cell phone attached to her head or have her available as an ever-ready shopping companion all the time. I started drilling her on the order of life (go to school, go to college, get a degree, get married, have babies) when she was about four, with an emphasis on the go-to-college part, so she's only following through with what she's been taught. But sitting here all alone, with Katie and her girlfriend with the other visiting juniors down at Navy Pier, my Henry back in Grand Rapids, and Jonathan away with his grandparents visiting family in West Virginia--it's a little more alone time than I bargained for.

So tomorrow is a day of visiting classes, touring the campus (it's quaint), and talking with the different college reps. I don't know how Katie feels about all this, but I'm thinking I'm a little too young for having a child in college. And when it's all said and done, we'll hit the outlets in Michigan City on the way home--just like always. We firmly believe that the mother and daughter who shop together can never really be far apart from each other. And maybe she'll think about that and seriously consider attending a local Christian college (Cornerstone maybe?)that will allow her to stay close to home and still fulfill the life order we've talked about.